Tuesday, October 9, 2012

In-depth: the story behind Figure 12, Conflict

Allegorical art turns you into a story teller whether you want to be or not! The amount of research that goes into an art piece may be more involved than the actual making of the art itself.  Everyone wants to know the story and you have to be ready to explain it when asked; this is kind of new for me... the artist's statements getting really long and involved and then having to be heavily edited and cut short to fit the 400-character limited of an online art show submission.

I'm going to go a little more in-depth into each image, starting with this one....not so deep that the mystery is gone, but enough to get the viewer going on the right track by mentioning some of the symbols.....only superficially though, so feel free to ponder and come up with more symbolism on your own!

Fig. 12, Conflict, Orange version, 8"x10"

The title of this one is pretty straightforward- it's about conflict and alludes to the battles, skirmishes, and wars on every scale that are supposed to escalate leading up to the End of Days. The eye with the six wings is the seraph described in the Book of Revelation- seraph means "the burning ones". It could also represent the "all seeing eye" of a higher power.
Pendulum: I have been using images of pendulums in my work for about five years now and on the surface, they symbolize the passage of time. The doorway is a classic symbol; could be closing or opening....it's up to the viewer. The image of ruins are real: it's a city that was bombed in the 1930's- modern warfare. The I Ching appears in every image in this series from Fig. 8 on; this image features hexagram #6, which is called conflict. The diagonal text image is the papyrus 46 of the New Testament describing the Apocalypse. I will not go into the color since each version of "Fig. 12, Conflict" is different and has very different colors and image treatments. 
Another monoprint version of it is below; it suggests destruction, the flames of hell or Gehenna:
Fig. 12, Conflict, City of Fire, 8"x10"
And this one is dark, watery, and foreboding, suggesting a storm is gathering.
Fig. 12, Conflict, The Coming Storm, 8"x10"
These three images are a great example of why I love this style of monoprints- you can take an idea and tweak it to conjure different concepts and versions of the same image but still stay within the theme. Each has it's own focus and individual character.  Next time I will go into the nuts and bolts of  Fig. 13, the 13th Sign or go back and discuss Fig. 8, Tin Foil Hats.
ciao,
~Rebecca

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